The Japan Tourism Agency under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is competing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in giving away free trips to Japan to foreigners in the hope of "favorable" coverage on the Internet social media.
From Yomiuri Shinbun (10/10/2011):
観光庁は、東日本大震災後に激減している外国人観光客の回復を狙い、２０１２年度に全世界から、旅費無料で１万人の一般観光客を日本に招待する方針を固めた。
The Japan Tourism Agency has decided to invite 10,000 tourists from all over the world in the fiscal 2012, free of charge. The purpose is to help increase the number of visitors from abroad which has plummeted after the March 11 disaster.
募集は主にインターネットを通じて行い、応募者の旅行計画などが審査に合格すれば、日本への往復航空券を提供する。
The Agency will invite foreigners to apply via the Internet. If the application and travel plan is accepted by the Agency, the applicant will be given a free round-trip ticket to Japan.
こうして来日する旅行者には、日本滞在中にインターネットで世界へ情報発信してもらう方針だ。日本国内の滞在が安全・安心であることを口コミで世界的に広げる効果を見込んでいる。旅行者にはこのほか、震災後の日本旅行についてアンケート調査をしたり、新たな日本旅行のモデルとなるような旅行プランを提案してもらったりする。事業費として、観光庁は１２年度予算の概算要求に１１億円を盛り込んだ。
The Agency plans to have these tourists broadcast information to the world during their stay in Japan via the Internet. The Agency is hoping the message of how safe it is to stay in Japan will spread to the world by word of mouth. The tourists will be asked to participate in the opinion survey on traveling in Japan after the March 11 disaster and to submit travel plans that can be used as a new model for travel in Japan. For the project, the Japan Tourism Agency is asking 1.1 billion yen (US$14.3 million) in the budget proposal for the fiscal 2012.
The fiscal 2012 year will start on April 1, 2012 in Japan.
So my readers outside Japan, watch out for the formal announcement on the Agency's website, which should come before that date: http://www.mlit.go.jp/kankocho/en/index.html
I don't know if the Agency (or for that matter, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs) has the "Plan B" - what if these foreigners do not tweet favorable impression? (Confiscating their return tickets, maybe, or send them off to "volunteer" somewhere north of Tokyo. Just kidding.)
The Agency's catchphrase is "Japan. Endless Discovery."
No kidding.
30-Day free trial by following the link.
Tokyo Time
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24 comments:
I can only repeat my last comment, written at the US-advisory:
Everybody who cares about Japan should take this opportunity: try to catch a ticket, take your dosimeters, pick up food samples for independent measurements later on, go to the affected areas and talk to people there, get into contact with the no-nukes-organisations and let these bureaucrates learn about the power of free speech!
Endless discovery...
No kidding
I guess it doesn't seem far-fetched that the japanese government could, somehow, trace all available information about these 10k "tourists" before paying their tickets.
They will handpick the most ignorant, autistic people they can get.
Pity.
Wouldn't it be neat if some hackers hacked into the give-away database and rigged it so that only critics won? Or if everybody they choose publicly refused to come at the last moment. Knowing TEPCO's luck they'll probably have another major radiation release that forces them to evacuate all the tourist out of the country.
Japan. Endless radiation.
TEPCO. Endless lies
Many of my twitter followers in Japan want you to come, armed with geiger counters, measure radiation and spread the word about radiation contamination. Some are worried though, that the government may confiscate your passport if you tweet bad things while in Japan. They say make sure you tweet about radiation after you're safely back home.
They are appalled at their stupid elite bureaucrats, though.
@arevamirpal::laprimavera
I believe people in Japan would rather like to see this money spent for their well-being instead of wasting it to foreigners...
But if this crazy project really should take place, concerned people have to be miles ahead, starting their preparations just now.
Please tell your japanese followers there are people around the world who make up their minds how to bring a bad idea to a favourable issue.
Oh, well - and I suppose the last thing the government would do is take our passports - this would mean we stay in Japan and make even more trouble :-) They'd rather give us an immediate trip back home.
You are a bunch of ignorant people. I bet half of you have never been to Japan and have no idea about the real problem thats going on there.
I will apply for the trip and I will win the trip and when I am there I will write another comment you remind all of you how useless your comment was.
See ya losers.
@anon 11:15,
I'm sure the author of this blog has never been to Japan either and has no idea about the real problems.
You go man! Show those ignorant nose-bleeders that strontium-90 is good for ya!
More like...Japan-Endless Recovery
Philippe here,
is it clever or dummy, i don't know.
I will like it when I know more details about this "special opportunity" - where, how and so on. It is not easy to travel in Japan, nor to take out your geiger anywhere anytime... But may be that could be great fun, thousands of gaikokujin testing the leeks and everything, asking where this comes from etc... Actually the US had a commandant Perry with his black boats before Shimoda, and it had some consequences.
I want to be invited in japan and i will make a lot of trouble against the mortal industry because i love our planet. a organic farmer in france.
I was in Japan for the F1 Grand Prix, and wasn't in the slightest bit worried.
(cr here)
Japan = 'Endless Radiation'.
Shame on Japan's govt and on TEPCO executives and lackeys.
Shame on the US govt: for not disclosing the truth. I'm sure they have numbers they aren't telling the public.
(Oh, by the way - I stopped travelling way back when the PRC got control of the World Health Organization and the H5N1 Pandemic Alert got swept under the rug.
As of July, 2006, the U.S. State Dept 'pandemic' page says
-very quietly; bet few US travellers have noticed it-
any Americans stranded abroad by a 'severe' pandemic can expect
No food, water, Nor medical care from U.S. embassies. You're on your own; possibly for months.
Travel is expected to be cancelled without warning, and quarantines used,
once the current WHO "Rapid Response & Containment" happens to fail to stop a killer flu, some unlucky day.
(It relies on some rather 'backward' places promptly, honestly, reporting suspicious cases, and, on antivirals still being effective against evolving strains, and, on there being resources there; to do movement restrictions and yet another antiviral 'blanket' on contacts.)
Combine that with the human-to-human H5N1 'birds_and_beasts_and_people flu' cases and clusters getting kept off the media's 'front burner' every year since 2006
to, "not hurt The Economy" (of the top 1% ?)...
(and, as the current H1N1 Pandemic is downplayed:
to see what happened to cases without effective antivirals started with 48 hours, see the
WHO epidemiology Report for May 22, 2009.)
Just as we here know the actual radiation/fallout levels from the Fukushima melt-throughs are getting covered up/denied
and people are not getting, "officially" diagnosed, nor evacuated far enough away,
there are other things 'the powers that be'
do not want ordinary citizens to know,
because it might hurt CEO's profits/govts' control
if communities were trying to protect themselves and their future generations.
The northern hemisphere already has had more than enough fallout from Fukushima coming to us: why would anyone want to go there?
Better to have taken that money and used it to enlarge the no-go zone; pay for housing for people to move families with children away.
Too bad such a high percentage of humans are, 'blue pill' "optimists": who discount, 'scary' reality-based facts,
and, then underestimate risks for themselves and society.
Makes it too easy; govt/corporate propagandists to tell people lies the 'optimists' want to believe.
Japanese should go by their March 1, 2011 radiation level laws:
not the inflated figures these psychopaths claim are, "safe" levels of radiation in the enviroment, food, and, people.
Fuck the free trips that place is a radioactive hole, kyushu or maybe hokkaido are ok but the rest of jpn forget it
@Anonymous 6:20AM
> I was in Japan for the F1 Grand Prix, and wasn't in the slightest bit worried
Not being worried does not make you safe. Let us know what your health condition is like in 5-15 years. It will be of interest to others.
Yes, this is a great offer!
Maybe I'll be one of those lucky winners!
I'll just make sure that I have checked my internal contamination before (!) and after the travel to this beautiful country.
F1 Grand Prix guy my prayers go out to you that you dodged the hot particles. In 10 years we will read about celibrity travlers to Japan coming down with Cancer and by that time the health of the F1 participants will be under study. Results will be spotty as the fallout, everyone on the F1 team could be healthy as a horse 10 years from now and all the motor cross sick with cancer. It is a lottery and your in the game by having traveled there.
People, people! Unless you have actually been to Japan (ever) never mind since the big quake then you really are just talking out your ass. I was in Nagoya when the quake hit and then on to Osaka until the end of March. To be honest I was quite concerned as I was never in anything like that in my life before. However, Japan is just fine if you are in Tokyo or south and some parts of the north (aside from some quakes that are larger than normal but still not really life threatening and only in some places). Honestly, there were tremors but there are over 10,000 quakes per year in Japan as there always has been and most under a 3 on the scale. Thats enough to know it happened (if you are close to the the epicenter) and not much more. There are still some bigger quakes going on around the Fukushima area and my heart goes out to those who are still living there (and there are people who are still there) as they have been through enough. The people of Osaka and the rest of Japan were amazing, helping each other, sending food, fuel, water and money to help. There was some protestng against TEPCO and the Govt for not being truthful but really Tokyo and south had business as usual within just a few days. Tokyo was supposed to get rolling blackouts but the people were so good at conserving energy it was not needed. If you really want to look for yourself then look at this site http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/indexe.html
And please dont bash just to be part of the mob, especially if you are just guessing, it only makes things worse. If you really want to know whats going on over there then go there yourself and decide. I for one will would love to win a ticket to Japan, its one of the best, most friendly and safest places I have ever been (and I have been there many time from Hokkaido all the way down to Fukuoka) and I consider it my second home.
I agree that it is a small island and so controlling the radiation seems a difficult thing to comprehend but if you do your home work, you will see that the wind very typically goes from West to East over pretty much the whole of Japan and is the reason minute particles were found along the North American west coast (this is also why its 9.5 housr to fly from Vancouver to Narita but only 8.5 back). It is a very strong wind and will carry small particles a long way.
Also while it is bad, this is no where near what happened at Chernobyl as I have seen other compare it to in complete ignorance.
Please get off the bandwagon and do you own research, then and only then do you have any right to say anything.
@anon at 11:05PM, Anyone can say anything, just as you did. The Agency hasn't started accepting the application yet, though. I hope you copied your comment.
I am disgusted at the comment someone made about them picking the most ignorant and autistic people, however wrote that comment would be ignorant if they really thought that, I find it highly insulting on behalf of those who unfortunately have such a condition and why in the world would ignorant people be picked? So they can give bad coverage? Ignorant people can't tell the world about Japan, it's common sense not to pick ignorant people unless your saying the people in Japan are so ignorant they ignore common sense
Why do people have to make so many generalisations? What happened to humanity?
thanks ,,
To venture into space we must be strong-willed and determined. We must be fully committed to its exploration and discovery; space permits no half measures and is unforgiving of mistakes.
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